Your favorite 2012 Sheng so far

shah82 wrote:The only times you really should get a sour plum feel is from certain kinds of older teas, especially from Yiwu.

New puerh? Sour? Well, wild wild tea can be sour, ...

debunix wrote:Only one 2012 sheng to date: 2012 Yunnan Sourcing "Yi Wu Purple Tea". It was quite lovely, so nice I had to share--couldn't keep it all to myself. Yes, a definite delicately floral quality was there.

Oddly enough, I got a sample of this 2012 Yi Wu Purple Tea, and I was really disappointed, because it was sour and lacked any depth. (This is just my opinion - obviously other people like it quite a lot!) Just thought I would chime in, since two people posted semi-related comments. I should also qualify this by saying that I usually think Yunnan sourcing makes pretty decent teas, but the 2012 Yi Wu Purple was not for me. I have written a review of it, but haven't posted it. I'll throw it up here when I am done

TwoDog2 wrote:Oddly enough, I got a sample of this 2012 Yi Wu Purple Tea, and I was really disappointed, because it was sour and lacked any depth. (This is just my opinion - obviously other people like it quite a lot!) Just thought I would chime in, since two people posted semi-related comments. I should also qualify this by saying that I usually think Yunnan sourcing makes pretty decent teas, but the 2012 Yi Wu Purple was not for me. I have written a review of it, but haven't posted it. I'll throw it up here when I am done

Juuuuuust to be careful, YS did have 2 types of purple teas this year. The one that debunix was speaking about was the more expensive one. The other, cheaper one was marked from Dehong (I think). I tried that one the other day, and it had a very savory base that reminds me of chinese cooking.

As for 2012s, I don't think I've had any absolute standouts -- though some very good ones, to be sure.

shah82 wrote:The only times you really should get a sour plum feel is from certain kinds of older teas, especially from Yiwu.

New puerh? Sour? Well, wild wild tea can be sour, ...

debunix wrote:Only one 2012 sheng to date: 2012 Yunnan Sourcing "Yi Wu Purple Tea". It was quite lovely, so nice I had to share--couldn't keep it all to myself. Yes, a definite delicately floral quality was there.

Oddly enough, I got a sample of this 2012 Yi Wu Purple Tea, and I was really disappointed, because it was sour and lacked any depth. (This is just my opinion - obviously other people like it quite a lot!) Just thought I would chime in, since two people posted semi-related comments. I should also qualify this by saying that I usually think Yunnan sourcing makes pretty decent teas, but the 2012 Yi Wu Purple was not for me. I have written a review of it, but haven't posted it. I'll throw it up here when I am done

It may be an issue with water - the YS's purple tea is generally extremely sensitive to it. The Purple tea may be really very good with soft, thick water (as from tea stove), but with electric kettle-boiled harder water, it is just as you say, flat and the sourness stands out.

Just to be clear, the YS 2012 puerh I am referring to was the 2012 Yunnan Sourcing "Yi Wu Purple Tea" Raw Pu-erh tea cake, a free sample of which was included in my order, and it was brewed up with 205 degree Las Vegas tap water (I don't know if there is a water softener for the building or not, but judging by the scale developing on the kettle, I think it is the usual hard water), unfiltered, in a porcelain pot.

This year is my first year sampling young sheng, mainly from TeaUrchin. All the spring shengs I had were nice, my top 2 were the Gao Shan Zhai and the Jingmai. All pretty high quality stuff relative to most things I see offered.

debunix wrote:Just to be clear, the YS 2012 puerh I am referring to was the 2012 Yunnan Sourcing "Yi Wu Purple Tea" Raw Pu-erh tea cake, a free sample of which was included in my order, and it was brewed up with 205 degree Las Vegas tap water (I don't know if there is a water softener for the building or not, but judging by the scale developing on the kettle, I think it is the usual hard water), unfiltered, in a porcelain pot.

Drax wrote:Juuuuuust to be careful, YS did have 2 types of purple teas this year. The one that debunix was speaking about was the more expensive one. The other, cheaper one was marked from Dehong (I think). I tried that one the other day, and it had a very savory base that reminds me of chinese cooking.

JakubT wrote:It may be an issue with water - the YS's purple tea is generally extremely sensitive to it. The Purple tea may be really very good with soft, thick water (as from tea stove), but with electric kettle-boiled harder water, it is just as you say, flat and the sourness stands out.

Interesting point Jakub, I was using filtered water at the time, boiled on the stove. I am actually not certain where the sourness came from? Processing? My method? The water? I did two sessions on two different days, with the same result

JakubT wrote:It may be an issue with water - the YS's purple tea is generally extremely sensitive to it. The Purple tea may be really very good with soft, thick water (as from tea stove), but with electric kettle-boiled harder water, it is just as you say, flat and the sourness stands out.

Interesting point Jakub, I was using filtered water at the time, boiled on the stove. I am actually not certain where the sourness came from? Processing? My method? The water? I did two sessions on two different days, with the same result

I see, I believe that all should be well with the tea.

When I get the sample (I have tried 2010 and 2011 versions so far and liked both of them), which should be soon, I'll experiment with it. I think there was an element of sourness in both 2010 and 2011 versions, but I thought it rather pleasant and well complementing the fruitiness. And, the aspect gets weaker with age - now, after two years of storage here, the 2010 edition is heading towards very nice honey with nuts and a bit of fruit, no sourness left,

Mr JakubT how is it, that in one post you can describe the flavor of a puerh in much more depths than yunnan sourcing on their own site. Don't get me wrong, it must be a good site, all reporting good stuff about it, but its weird they always use those esoteric description about taste.

JakubT wrote:When I get the sample (I have tried 2010 and 2011 versions so far and liked both of them), which should be soon, I'll experiment with it. I think there was an element of sourness in both 2010 and 2011 versions, but I thought it rather pleasant and well complementing the fruitiness. And, the aspect gets weaker with age - now, after two years of storage here, the 2010 edition is heading towards very nice honey with nuts and a bit of fruit, no sourness left,

I look forward to reading what you think. The sample I had really lacked any fruityness. I would like to know if maybe it was just too young, or if it is different than the last couple of years in a significant way? Perhaps it will calm down a bit in time.

iovetea: Pray, could you maybe say it once more, a bit differently? I am afraid I do not really understand what you ment here

TwoDog: I'd love to try it too - because you sound to do everything really well (the water, I mean), this tea was (in 2010 and 11) very drinkable right from the start, so I don't see where the problem could be - in the 2012 vinatage, possibly.

Flash infusion: pour water in, lid on, pour out1--sweet, anise, delicate--no hint of sour, no how, no where2--smoky, but also spicy/herbaceous--there might be a hint of sour there somewhere in the aftertaste--somehow related to the smoky gym sock element, but the overwhelming sense is the smoky and spicy

1--delicate, anise, sweet, light, could do a little longer infusion2--still smoky, but now pleasantly smoky, campfire smoky, not gym socks, and still the lovely spicy, with just hints of that maybe sour element

3rd, 4th flash infusion--no significant change

First impression: the YiWu purple is immediately friendlier, milder, while the Dehong is aggressively smoky-young and needs some air time to release that excessive smokiness--just not immediately as approachable as the YiWu. I do like the spicy background flavor A LOT and think this is going to be just lovely after this smoky phase calms. The Dehong may well be the more interesting tea in a few years.

5th infusion now 20-30 secondsstronger and more pleasing spicy/anise flavor in the YiWu, as expected, YUM!, no sourness of note here; the Dehong is getting sweeter and spicier as the smoky fades a bit. There's a hint of sourness still, perhaps, but less than in the earlier infusions, again leading me to think that was more a feature of the heavy smokiness rather than intrinsic to the tea itself.

And somehow I'm again out of tea and must infuse again…but the kettle is nearly empty and it's late, so I'll post this preliminary report now.